For over 100 years Pine Mountain has been focused on enriching lives and connecting people through Appalachian place-based education for all ages.
An in-depth digital look at the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive. The collections
ARCHIVE INDEX TO SERIES AND GUIDES
FULL INDEX TO COLLECTIONS
Now over 2,000 pages of local and regional history and biographies.
ABOUT THE ARCHIVE
OUR VISION
The Vision of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Archive is to provide a voice that will encourage transformations in our relationship to the cultures of the Appalachian region through access to a unique and extensive body of material. Pine Mountain is one of the earliest rural settlement schools within the Appalachian region. The Rural Settlement School Movement and its impact on the people of Eastern Kentucky and the Southern Appalachians is a story that has sometimes been misrepresented, romanticized, or only partially understood and described. We envision an accessible, deep, vibrant and vital resource that will encourage exploration and collaborative dialogue about the hidden and sometimes contested history of rural settlement schools within the Appalachian dialog. We envision a broader dissemination of research materials across all public, private, and federal sectors interested in Appalachian cultures and lives. more …
OUR ARCHIVAL MISSION
The Pine Mountain Settlement School archival mission supports the institutional mission and its strategic planning goals. Our institutional mission continues a long 108-year history of evolving educational and social enrichment programs centered on the local community and beyond. Once a boarding school with a progressive educational curriculum, Pine Mountain Settlement School’s recent educational programming has moved away from residential education to multi-faceted offerings of short-term environmental, cultural, medical, social, agricultural, and arts and crafts programs and workshops for all ages. But, the archive has not moved away from, nor will it move away from, a commitment to Pine Mountain as place and people. more …
To access the Archive go to INDEX TO ARCHIVAL COLLECTIONS (also at the top of the page).
Go to PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL MAIN PAGE to learn more about the School’s current workshops, community interaction, annual events, and other activities. There, you will find information about donating to the School and visiting the campus.
THINKING OF VISITING PINE MOUNTAIN? We follow COVID guidelines.
Consult the following for current information regarding Kentucky COVID regulations and guidelines:
https://govstatus.egov.com/kycovid19
https://governor.ky.gov/covid19
ARCHIVE WHAT’S NEW AND OLD!
JUNE
WILLIAM AND ROSE BROWN Students, 1928-1929
“[Rose] has done so well…. And then she is a girl of fine character and spirit and is such a fine influence with the other girls. You see, she is doing as you are doing, helping others to be better just as you do…..” [May 20, 1929. Excerpt from Katherine Pettit’s letter to W.Taylor Brown.]
See also: WILLIAM AND ROSE BROWN Correspondence
W. TAYLOR BROWN Narrative, 1922-1926
A Berea College Normal School graduate describes his four years as a teacher at Green Hill, a one-room school-house in Harlan County, from 1922 through 1926. He assisted his half-siblings, William and Rose Brown to attend Pine Mountain Settlement School in 1928-1929.
MAY
KATHERINE PETTIT 1899-1900 CAMP CEDAR GROVE REPORT
Report of the Committee on Social Settlements in the Mountains of Kentucky, presented at the State Federation of Women’s Clubs annual meeting, c. 1899. Possibly written by Katherine Pettit.
” … send us a woman, a gentle, womanly woman, a dear old-fashioned woman, young or old, who can win woman’s true rights in that conquest, that in itself is simply being a woman ? …
IN MEMORIAM:
MATT BOGGS 1932-2021
Matt Boggs was a student at Pine Mountain Settlement School, then a worker at the School for more than six decades until his retirement in 2014. Serving in various positions throughout the years, from farm worker to teacher of woodworking and environmental education, Matt was well-known and highly regarded by many at the School. He had a remarkable impact on the School. His craft classes were always filled with loyal followers and his gardens always flourished. Many have homes filled with examples of his woodwork instruction and many more have been gifted produce from his gardens. (See his biography here.)
See the WHAT’S NEW! ARCHIVE for previously featured collections,
NOW IN A NEW EASIER-TO-NAVIGATE FORMAT. This archived list includes links to
FAMILIES IN PINE MOUNTAIN VALLEY COMMUNITY (See June and November 2018).
LATEST DIGITAL ADDITIONS
JUNE 2021
6/20 EDUCATION Children’s Writing (01) Brit Wilder – Full transcription and image of letter from Brit Wilder to his PMSS teacher, Margaret Motter, 1928. Brit later served as head of PMSS maintenance and farm for many years. See: EDUCATION Community and Children’s Writing I, II, and III. See also: Brit Wilder’s biography here.
6/20 EDUCATION Children’s Writing (06, 44) Becky May Huff – Full transcription and images of two handwritten letters from a PMSS student (and later, PMSS weaving and folk dance teacher) to her teacher, Miss Marguerite Butler (1918), and the School’s co-director, Ethel de Long Zande (1927). See: EDUCATION Community and Children’s Writing I, II, and III. See also: Becky May Huff’s biography here.
6/17 FARM Agricultural Correspondence 1919-1920 – Images and a list of contents of letters between the School’s co-founders and applicants for an assistant farm superintendent position at PMSS in 1919 and 1920. The correspondence provides a look at both the hiring practices of the School and the dairy farm during the first decade of the School’s existence. See also: FARM Agricultural Correspondence 1918.
6/14 GLADYS HILL Correspondence PART 2 – Letters dated 1940-1952 of Gladys Hill, PMSS housemother & teacher, 1929–1952, & board member, 1949–1952. She taught, managed, and wrote about the Co-operative Program at PMSS. See also GLADYS HILL Correspondence Part 1 (1929-1939) and her biography.
6/12 MAUDE HOLBROOK Correspondence – Newly scanned images of documents and a list of their contents were added to this page. Maude was a PMSS student from 1934 to 1936 and housemother and dietitian from 1936 until 1940. See her biography here.
6/7 CHARLSIE VAUGHN Correspondence 1939-1946 – A PMSS student’s application to PMSS and her student self-evaluation letters to her family. See also CHARLSIE VAUGHN Correspondence 1947 concerning her return to PMSS to work as an Infirmary nurse. Her biography is located here.
6/5 JOHN A. SPELMAN III Gouache Conservation Project A conservation project to address the issues found in the artist’s works of art on paper at the School.
6/4 WILLIAM AND ROSE BROWN Students – A biography of siblings who came to PMSS in 1928 with the help of their half-brother, W.Taylor Brown, a teacher in rural Kentucky schools.
6/4 WILLIAM AND ROSE BROWN Correspondence – Images & list of contents of letters concerning two siblings who attended PMSS in 1928-1929.
W. TAYLOR BROWN Narrative – A half-brother who assisted William and Rose Brown to attend PMSS describes his experiences teaching at a rural school in Harlan Co., 1922-1926.
MAY 2021
5/25 KATHERINE PETTIT 1899-1900 Camp Cedar Grove Report – Images and full transcription of a handwritten report, likely by PMSS Co-Founder Katherine Pettit. Presented to the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, this stirring report describes the experiences of five of its members who set up a six-week summer camp in Hazard, Kentucky. This early effort led to the founding of Hindman Settlement School and later, Pine Mountain Settlement School in Eastern Kentucky.
5/24 POLLY TURNER Student – Biography of a boarding school student who attended Pine Mountain Settlement School from 1923 to 1934. See also POLLY TURNER Correspondence.
5/19 EVENTS Thanksgiving Ball – Images and description of a formal dance held annually in Laurel House each November throughout the 1940s to commemorate the national holiday.
5/19 EVENTS George Washington Ball – Images and description of a formal dance held annually in Laurel House each February throughout the 1940s to celebrate the birthday of the first U.S. President.
5/18 POLLY TURNER Correspondence – Images and a list of contents of correspondence (dated 1925-1936) while Polly Turner was a PMSS student and, later, concerning her application to Tusculum College. See also POLLY TURNER Student.
5/15 MATT BOGGS Student Staff (See May entry for “What’s New and Old” above).
5/7 GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Student – Biography of Bill Tye, a former PMSS student (1943-1946) who went on to a career with the USAF and a Ph.D in psychiatry.
5/5 GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Correspondence 1957-1961 – Images and list of contents of correspondence of a former PMSS student (1943-1946) after his time at Pine Mountain.
5/3 GEORGE WILLIAM TYE Correspondence 1943-1946 – Images and list of contents of application and correspondence concerning a PMSS student who graduated in 1946.
5/02 1947 COMMUNITY FAIR DAY – Includes the lyrics for the traditional Fair song, “Heigh-Ho … Come to the Fair.”
Go to ARCHIVE LATEST DIGITAL ADDITIONS for previous lists.
COMMENTS and CONTACT
Comments and feedback regarding the material on this website or on the institutional history are welcomed. Comments directly on the website are not enabled.
Please contact office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or (606) 558-3571 with your inquiries and comments. We welcome your identification of people and activities on our site and, particularly, corrections to the record. Please see OUR PRIVACY POLICY and contact our office if you believe we have violated your rights to privacy.
PMSS ARCHIVE MISSION STATEMENT (extended)
FORMS & INFORMATION
ORAL HISTORY RELEASE AGREEMENT
ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION – PRINCIPLES AND BEST PRACTICES
ABOUT OCR TEXT
Many of the texts included in this site have been automatically generated using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In some cases, these texts have not been manually reviewed or corrected.
OCR enables searching of large quantities of full-text data, but it is not 100% accurate. The level of accuracy depends on the print quality of the original publication and its condition at the time of microfilming. Publications with poor quality paper, small print, mixed fonts, multiple column layouts or damaged pages may have poor OCR accuracy.
CITATION OF MATERIALS
Any PUBLIC use of material must properly cite Pine Mountain Settlement School in the following manner:
“[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. [date], Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. [date accessed]
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIVACY
The manuscript collections and archival records in the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections may contain sensitive and/or confidential information derived from historical archives that may be protected under federal and state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers who wish to publish and users who may share material from the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections are advised by this notice that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in some collections within the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. may be a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person for which Pine Mountain Settlement School assumes no responsibility.
If you believe that your privacy rights have been invaded please notify the following.
office@
See INDEX TO COLLECTIONS for an overview of collections and series.